Burma Superstar Review

We were fairly pleased by the unique and distinctive dishes served to us by Burma Superstar. The pumpkin (and pork) stew and the samusa soup were the crowd favorites.

Arriving around 8:00pm on a Thursday, we saw this popular Richmond district restaurant was filled (as it always is) and added our names to the waiting list. (They don\'t take reservations.) There were around a dozen parties ahead of us, a scary fact accentuated by the observation the restaurant contains not much more than a dozen tables (no more than twenty). We wandered down Clement street trying to decide where to kill the large chunk of time we imagined we had. However, happily they called us within fifteen minutes: it appears they had a large table open up and all the parties in front of us were only two or three people so they bumped us up to seat us! Yay!

Details on the particular dishes we tried follow. All of these were from the Burmese side of the menu, not the Chinese side.

• Tea leaf salad. (Also includes a number of other ingredients; check the web page for the whole list.) Decent. One attendee complained the tea leaf flavor was too mild and was drowned out. Another said it was more like a good nutty salad -- it did have a lot of items that snapped and crackled in one\'s mouth and had a bit of a nutty flavor. One person remarked it wasn\'t the kind of item he would make for himself. But most of us agreed the salad grew on you and by the end it probably got a rating of good.
• Samusa soup. Quite good. A somewhat spicy curry-based soup with tasty samusas (little ravioli filled with, I believe, little dabs of chicken and potatoes) that had a nice and surprising crunch to them. Also included little balls of lentils. Like the last dish it definitely had character and we all enjoyed it.
• Super Star noodles. Traditional Burmese noodles flavored predominately with chili sauce. Two of us quite liked it; the rest thought it was just okay.
• Burmese-style catfish curry. A decently cooked catfish covered with a tomato-based curry sauce. The sauce was a little salty on its own (or over rice) but went reasonably well on the catfish. It didn\'t excite any of us; the general reaction could be summarized by a rating of fine.
• Pumpkin (and pork) stew. We all really liked this hearty but not heavy dish. The pumpkin was soft without being mushy and, surprisingly, served with its skin. While the pork paled in comparison to the pumpkin, it was also good and did happily acquire a tad of the pumpkin flavor through the gravy/broth.
• Coconut custard fritters (alongside coconut ice cream and a few strawberry slices). Dessert. A very unique dish: the crunchiness of the outer shell was a nice contrast to the creaminess within. But none of us were big fans. And frankly given the richness of the dish, I\'m happy none of us had to eat a while fritter oneself. Also, the coconut ice cream was exactly as advertised but, for most of us, wasn\'t really our thing either. (Maybe none of us are big fans of coconut? Almost every review I read encouraged readers to get this dish.)
• Chocolate cake (or souffle? I forget) under ginger ice cream (alongside a few more strawberry slices). The better of the two deserts. While a majority of us thought the ginger ice cream was too gingery for our tastes, having a bite of it with the chocolate cake mellowed it out nicely. And while it certainly didn\'t knock our socks off, we were happy with it: the dish (and the cake itself) get a rating of good.

Total of $26/person counting drinks (a pitcher of mediocre-at-best sangria), tax, and tip was slightly higher than we expected, but still quite a good deal especially when compared to some of the past destinations.

Original Announcement

This Thursday at 8:00pm we\'ll head to Burma Superstar, a Burmese restaurant in the inner (east) Richmond district. This continues our current theme of unusual well-reviewed inexpensive restaurants

http://www.burmasuperstar.com/

Please tell me if you are coming!

Comments from Other Attendees

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